Mr. Moon has acted as a go-between in the proposed talks, and South Korea had insisted on Monday that there was a “99.9 percent” chance that the meeting would be held. (The White House has already issued commemorative coins for the occasion.)

But if the North maintains its nuclear arsenal, can Mr. Trump still claim diplomatic victory? It will depend on how he redefines success — and if the meeting takes place, our correspondent noted.

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CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

•After talk of putting the trade war “on hold,” Washington has warned Beijing that it might still impose tariffs on goods such as Chinese steel, above. But deep divisions within the White House’s trade team have resulted in a mixed message that has weakened the U.S. position, officials said.

And after rereading “The Art of the Deal,” our business columnist writes that the president’s negotiating playbook is on display: “Start with a headline-grabbing demand, beat chest loudly, then accept whatever is actually practical and call it a win.”

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CreditJeenah Moon for The New York Times

• Congress passed a bill that would free thousands of U.S. banks from strict rules intended to prevent another financial meltdown. The legislation does little to alter the oversight of some of the larger banks, but it is symbolically important to Republicans railing against the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking regulation law as an example of federal overreach.

And the Volcker Rule, one of the most significant actions by the government, is also a target of the White House’s deregulatory push. The law prohibited banks from making risky but hugely profitable bets with their customers’ deposits.

Above, the Federal Reserve in New York.

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CreditEugene Hoshiko/Associated Press

• His coach told him to do it.

A violent tackle from behind would ordinarily result in a severe penalty. But in Japan, where American football barely registers, the illegal move during a college game has touched off a national debate about “power hara,” or obedience to authority and unwavering team loyalty.

The 20-year-old linebacker from Nihon University who made the tackle, Taisuke Miyagawa, above, apologized and said his coaches had ordered him to injure the opposing quarterback or risk being benched. The head coach has resigned.

“I wasn’t strong enough to say no,” Mr. Miyagawa said.

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CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

• China and its archrival Taiwan share claims to the Spratly Islands, a hotly contested archipelago in the South China Sea, pictured in a poster in Weifang, China, above. But the two diverge in how they exercise control.

China has built artificial islands that bristle with military installations and missiles.

On Itu Aba, a 110-acre speck dense with banana and coconut trees, the Taiwanese are planning a small hospital to bolster search-and-rescue capacity for nearby heavily trafficked sea lanes.

But almost everything about Itu Aba is up for dispute. The Philippines and Vietnam also stake claims, and the U.N. has ruled that it’s just a rock, undercutting the Taiwanese claim to the surrounding waters.

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Business

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CreditFrançois Lenoir/Reuters

• Mark Zuckerberg faced a barrage of questions at the European Parliament, the latest stop on his Facebook apology tour.

• Want to see your baby? Some new mothers in China said hospital staff barred them until they paid their medical bills first, a symptom of an inflexible system.

• Amazon has aggressively pitched its facial recognition service to law enforcement, but civil rights organizations worried about mass surveillance are urging it to stop.

In the News

• “The military junta wants to crush us.” Thai democracy activists defied the police to hold a protest on the fourth anniversary of a military coup. [The New York Times]

• A Tibetanactivist was sentenced to five years in prison for speaking to The New York Times about Chinese policies he fears threaten his native language. [The New York Times]

• At least 16 people were killed in Afghanistan as experts tried and failed to defuse explosives in a parked car. [The New York Times]

• A relentless heat wave killed at least 65 people in Karachi, Pakistan, where the temperature reached 44 degrees Celsius. [The New York Times]

• A Rohingya refugee died after jumping from a moving bus on Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea, where Australia houses hundreds of migrants. [SBS]

• Wild dogs have been attacking children with alarming frequency in northern India. Muslim farmers blame Hindu politicians who shut down slaughterhouses, depriving the dogs of the scraps they subsisted on. [The New York Times]

• More than a third of girls in South Asia miss school during their periods because of a lack of restrooms and sanitary products, a study found. [Reuters]

• The Chinese giant salamander — the world’s largest amphibian and a local delicacy — is close to extinction, researchers said. [BBC]

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. You can also receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights.